Earth Day
by Fabius Maximus
Summary: Cindy and James have to do an Earth day presentation. What could go wrong? for more on these characters see "Winter War," "Chinese Curse" and "Soccer Moms" Chapter V is up: The Horror in the Museum.
1. Chapter 1

Earth Day

A James and Cindy Story

* * *

James Possible-Stoppable sat in his seat at the Auditorium, grumping. When mom came back from her vacation, he'd have to show her his D- on history, and she'd freak.

"Figured out what you're going to say to mom?" Cindy Lipsky asked him, the 13 year old looking over at him from her chair.

"It was dad's fault?"

"Hmmm…that'd work. But you gotta admit, he went to a lot of effort."

"I know…I mean a power point presentation and everything on why the moon landings were faked."

Cindy folded her arms over her T-shirt, and cocked her head, looking at her friend. "And that's why you did it?"

"Well…no. I just wanted to see what Color Mr. Carruther's face would turn when he read it."

"I gotta admit, that was a nice shade of red." She paused. "Was it worth it?"

"I'll tell you after mom gets back."

"Hey, at least they're not fighting anymore." Cindy pointed out. "Well, not physically…all the time, at least."

"True." James grinned, "And since your mom isn't here, you made it out of the house without a jacket! I can't believe she trusted you for that."

Cindy groaned. "She didn't. She put a GPS in my jackets so I wouldn't go out and catch cold—I had to hack all the transmitters."

"wow. What's your mom going to do when you go to college."

"Sigh. She's been talking about home-colleging."

"Wow."

"Attention!" The voice came from the front of the auditorium. It wasn't the voice of Stanley Schumaker, Principal of George Washington Jr. High School….it was…

Principal _Bonnie Rockwaller-Flagg?_ James looked at Cindy. Cindy looked at James. Bonnie looked out over the puzzled audience. "When Mr. Schumaker tried to show his son the proper way to fix a TV, he evidently forgot the part about unplugging it. So for now, since Middleton High has the week off, I'm filling in for him." She looked out over the audience and continued, "And if you give me any trouble, remember that in two years at most, your butts are mine for the next four years. I _know_ you don't want to give me cause to remember your smiling faces."

The room was silent. They'd all heard tales of Mrs. Rockwaller-Flagg from their older siblings in some cases or parents in other cases, and the trembling hands and quavering voices those tales were related to them in were more than enough warning.

"Now, As you know, this Friday we're having our Earth Day presentation….and since nobody seems to be interested in it because it's not something you'll be graded on… " Bonnie paused, "You are now going to be graded on it. Don't worry, you have a _whole week_ to get it done." She got a broad smile on her face, "And I'm inviting your parents, and Superintendent Barkin to see what you do with your new projects!"

A cry of outrage started to sweep the auditorium, quelled before Bonnie's laser like eyes.

"That's better… I'll expect to have you drop off your proposals at the office today after school."

* * *

At lunch, Cindy was frowning.

"Stupid Earth Day." She muttered, "We're going to have to do some dumb diorama or something."

"Oh, Cindy….Cindy, Cindy, Cindy…." James aid, "I would have thought better of the daughter of Drew Lipsky."

"What does that mean?" James sighed and shook his head. Cindy looked at him, and raised one hand, pink plasma coalescing around it. "the daughter of _Shego_ Lipsky, asks again…what does that mean."

"Oh, well." James said, "We can do something more exciting!"

"We're not allowed to build any more reactors…at least on school grounds." Cindy said, looking across the lunch yard to the cofferdam of lead, concrete and steel that had been the chemistry lab.

"I _told_ you that you'd under estimated the neutron flow." James said morosely.

"Hey, Mom and me are a lot more tolerant of hard radiation." Cindy paused "But that doesn't…. hey, wait a minute, I have an idea!"

"Only one?" James said, and ducked at the flicked finger bolt of plasma. Other than that, Cindy was ignoring him, as she dug through her back pack (with the bright traffic strips sewn into the back, courtesy of Shego.).

"Here!" She said, pulling out the Middleton Daily. On the front page was a picture of the Middleton Museum, with the headline. "Life of Ages past, Extinct Animals exhibit comes to Middleton."

"And?"

"And I went there with dad last Saturday—they have a _**Smilodon Populator, **_and a Mammoth, and a bunch of other extinct animals."

"Okay…" James said, looking at them, "and what are you thinking."

"If we could get some intact DNA, and clone them, we could bring _them_ to the presentation! I mean, what can get more Earth Day than restoring extinct animals?"

"Hey, that's-" James paused, "What about fast growing them, that takes a _lot_ of power." He frowned, "More than you could produce."

"No problem, dad's old lair still has that carbon cycle fusion reactor in it." She shrugged, "And I have the access code, since mom made help her put all the twins' old baby things in it last month."

"And our moms' aren't here…." James said, with a grin.

"And that means the only ones we have to worry about are our dads…" The two looked at each other and then high fived.

"Cool!" They both said. "This is gonna be the greatest Earth Day presentation EVER!"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter II.

* * *

Of course, as with all wonderful ideas, it took planning. And planning had to occur in the right place.

Bueno Nacho.

"You know, dad still grumps that I've joined "the enemy,"" Cindy said around a mouth full of Grande Naco.

"Well betrayal is sort of a villain thing." James responded, "He should be proud."

"I think he was more upset mom wasn't letting him go to Bueno Nacho himself." Cindy replied.

"Oh?"

"He didn't intercept the doctor's report, and it had bad things to say about his Cholesterol levels."

"Oh." James said. "Mom's just happy as long as dad doesn't eat so much he turns into a ugly fat monster."

"That's harsh."

"Well it _did_ actually happen." Now James put his soda down and got a serious look. "And it's time to decide who runs things on this operation."

"You ran things last time."

"That wasn't a mission, that was looking for a kid's _cat._"

"Oh and that doesn't count as a mission? We were engaged in a directed activity to achieve a goal." Cindy pointed out, leaning back, flipping her long braid of dark hair over her shoulder, the light catching the subtle green highlights in it.

"Um, well, you didn't say it was a mission."

"Hmph. Well, there's one way to solve this." Cindy held up her hand, and gestured at James. James nodded.

"Ready…" Cindy did three motions with her hand, leaving it in the form of a pair of scissors. "Scissors, I….James, _what_ are you doing?" James had his hands up under his chin, waggling all fingers.

"Winning."

"Winning? That's not even legal."

"Sure it is, and it beats scissors."

"_How_."

"Simple, Paper, covers rock, scissors cut paper, rock smashes scissors. Correct?"

"_Yes."_

"And Unnamable Cthuloid horrors from beyond space and time, crumble rock, rusts scissors and inscribes paper with blasphemous secrets that cause your eyeballs to explode while your tongue catches fire from the unholy hymns your crazed mind forces you to scream out." He paused, and took a sip on his coke. "Thus, I win."

Cindy glared at him and muttered, "_Never_ should have given you those Lovecraft books for Christmas…"

"And I heard that your dad was muttering about the lawn again… and I'll just happen to be mowing _our_ lawn and offer to do it so you don't have to."

"Now you're talking…okay, you get to plan the first part of our mission."

"First part?"

"Don't push it."

"Me, when would I ever push it beyond good sense?"

"Training Wheels."

"Ah…" James loosened his collar, "In any case, the first thing we have to do is to get into the museum to take our core samples."

"And we need a core sampler."

"Easy enough, I can modify a laser drill to make a tiny hole—too small to see, and then use one of your dads gravatomic rays to pull out the fragments—nobody would even notice the different from the outside."

"And you can do this in…"

"By this evening." Now James looked at Cindy. "Of course it depends on you being able to clone them…"

"Not a problem." She finished her grande Naco and continued, "Like I said, Dad's old lair has everything we need."

"This is…a safe old lair."

"Oh yeah," Cindy said, "remember, our moms cleared it out when we were ten?" James thought, then started to laugh.

"_That one?_" He got serious, "But all of the mutated head lice _was_ removed, right?"

"Sure." Cindy said, trying not to laugh, "Especially after mom threatened dad with what she would do if she ever saw any again."

"It made for a funny time when they picked us up." The two looked at each other, and laughed.

Then, in unison, James and Cindy both said: "Mom…why are you bald?"

Moments later, their giggles subsided.

"So how are we going to do this?"

"I'll ask dad if I can go out late…he'll agree." James said.

"And I'll…wait until dad starts working on one of his projects." Cindy paused, "I could say I was going out to burn the city down and he wouldn't notice."

"Cool! We can meet in front of my house at 8:00—and by 9:00 everyone should be out of the museum." He peered at her, "And we can get in?"

"Please, mom taught me everything she knew… and she's _old_. " Cindy said in a superior tone. "What about you?"

"Oh you don't worry about me! Remember I'm the scion of mystical monkey power _and_ I know technology."

"Take the last, I saw you on the field yesterday—unless mystical monkey power is codeword for "Klutz." "

"Hmph. I got distracted. "

"You ran into a pole!"

"I was _really_ distracted." He shrugged, "Besides, nothings going to go wrong—we've got it all under control!"

TBC.


	3. Chapter 3

When James came home, he knew exactly what to ask:

"Hey Dad, do you mind if I go out to the mall? I know it's late but we'll come right back." James asked. _don't ask where we're taking the bus from…_

"Okay." Dad said from where he was working on something at the desk.

"What's that?"

"M…" Ron said, concentrating, "They say the automat diners just make bland food, so I'm trying to figure out something with the ingredients to make better tasting food."

"Here? Why not the kitchen?" James asked, looking towards the door to the kitchen with the prominent: KIM, DO NOT ENTER sticker on it.

"Robots aren't as skillful as human chefs." His father said, "So I need to come up with something idiot proof."

"Why not use mom as a test than?" His father stopped, looked at James, and raised his eyebrows.

"I said something idiot proof, not "four horsemen of the Apocalypse proof." Ron pointed out. "Speaking of that, I got a letter from school today."

"Um yea…about that grade…"

"Grade? What Grade? They were asking if I knew anything about those bullies from Lowerton."

_Oops_. "Bullies? What bullies?"

Dad looked at James with an expression that combined affection with a small amount of annoyance and 'do you really think I'm that stupid.'

"The Bullies who ended up huddled on the roof of the Smarty Mart talking about a, and I quote "demon she bitch with the pink fires of hell, and some kid who we couldn't hit no matter how hard we tried.""

"Oh…_those_ bullies." James said. "Well, they scared Cindy, I mean, they were big and scary and they called her family mean things and…" He looked at his father. "You're not buying it, are you?" Dad raised his eyebrows. "Guess not."

"Well." Ron said, "I think it's a great story, if you can get Cindy to look properly scared. Can she handle looking like a scared little girl?"

"_Cindy?_"

"And now you see the problem with that story."

"How about some kids from Lowerton decided to see if they could make fun of us and threw the first punch?" Now dad was smiling.

"_That's_ the way to do it." He said. "Cindy didn't vaporize anyone and they were all bigger than you…"

"So you want us to lie?" James looked at his father.

Ron shook his head. "James, I would never say that, even when your mother is out of the house… rather, let's say….shade the truth in an appropriate way. They _did_ throw the first punch, after all….we won't get into who pushed them over the edge."

"Thanks!"

"Now about that grade…."

"Um, that's sort of your fault dad—it was about the space program."

"Did you show them the power point presentation?"

"That's when the teacher sorta turned…"

"Purple?"

"More like Mauve."

"Oh."

"Mom's gonna freak." James said, morosely. "At both of us."

"Not if she has some bullies to get angry about!" Ron said, "And people say there are no answers to prayer."

James blinked. He hadn't thought of that. Then he did the only thing he could think of. He cheered.

***

Dad was working on something in the living room. Cindy paused.

"Dad?"

"Soon, the powers of heaven shall bo-yes?"

"Didn't mom say no more experiments in the living room after…" She pointed to the patched part of the roof.

"Well, she's not here and-"

"And did you make certain the gremlins," Cindy pointed towards the twins room, "couldn't get into stuff again?"

"Um, yes." Drew said, sweating as he remembered the incident with the plasma reactor and Shego's little talk about "age appropriate toys."

"Okay. Can I go out a little bit later tonight? It's with James."

"Hmmmm… I don't know." Her father said, and Cindy kicked herself for reminding him of his parental responsibilities _before_ she'd asked permission.

Time to bring out the big guns.

"It's important…" She said.

"Oh, what are you doing?"

"Um…breaking the laws of man and God and getting involved in things man was not meant to know?"

"Oh, very well, just as long as you're not staying too late at the mall. I don't like the crowd there when it gets late."

"Thanks dad!"

***

James was waiting in front of his house, as Cindy pedaled up to it.

"Got it?" She asked, and James showed her something that looked like a squirt gun.

"I used the old squirt gun exterior we had, so if anyone asks…we're carrying a kid's toy."

"Neat!"

"Yep—and then once we get back to the lair we can start cloning any viable DNA."

"We?"

"Okay, you can get involved in the icky and gross part of our work."

"Thank you." Cindy said, as they started for the museum, the sky turning purple with late evening.

"Oh, Cindy?"

"Yeah?"

"The school found out about the fight on the bus."

"It wasn't a fight." Cindy said. "There has to be a chance that you can lose for it to be a fight."

"Oh, so what was it?"

"Live fire training?"

"Sounds good."

"It should, _I_ thought of it." The two laughed as the pedaled down the street to their destination.

TBC.


	4. Chapter 4

To the Museum!

* * *

"Ready?" James asked. Cindy nodded. They'd spent some time at the mall, to make certain nobody wondered why they were hanging around the museum, most of it in the holographic gun range… at least they were allowed back in there now, James thought.

"Hmph." Cindy muttered. "I didn't know my plasma would derez the holograms and it was only that one time…"

"Well, be glad they let us in now." James smiled, "my standings in Zombie Mayhem: 3D Destruction were falling."

"Below where they were? That's hard to do."

"You wound me."

"Not as badly as that zombie did. You're _lucky_ it was just a holo zombie…" She paused, "I think that's the last guy out."

"Yeah." James said. "You realize if we get caught we will be grounded to the heat death of the universe."

"No, we'll be grounded beyond it," Cindy said, "Wanna quit?"

"Nope, just wanted to be clear on the consequences."

"Gotcha." Cindy looked at the museum. "I think we should go in through the roof."

"Why? I can bypass the alarms on the doors no problem."

"Yeah, but if we bypass the roof alarms, nobody will expect a pair of kids."

"Hmmm…Okay, I surrender to your family's superior knowledge."

"Hey, your mom and dad snuck into lots of lairs."

"Yeah, but your mom and dad got into more places with well…normal alarms."

"True." Cindy said, "Keep watch while I get my suit on."

James did so, averting his eyes, when he had to catch a carelessly thrown bundle of clothes. Then, Cindy came out from behind the bushes.

"Why didn't you put it on at home?" James asked.

"Because even dad isn't clueless enough that he wouldn't have thought to ask a question about that."

James frowned. Cindy was wearing her combat suit, true, but also had a short Levi's skirt on. He pointed, and Cindy frowned. "Mom. She got to this one as well."

"Oh." James aid. In fact, you could almost see the glowing safety panels-

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you staring at my butt?"

"No, just the things on it-" James backtracked, "No, just thinking if there's a way to cover up what your mom put on it."

"Good save."

"Thanks."

It didn't take long for the two to scope out the museum, since they'd remembered when they'd been there earlier.

"Back side?"

"Invisible from the street, and the buildings facing it are office buildings, so yah." Cindy said.

"What if there's someone working late?" James asked.

"We'll be able to see if they are, since they'll have the lights on." Then she gave a superior smile, "_And_ it's Friday…and nobody works late on a Friday."

"Okay…" James looked up the wall. "No escape stairs."

"Well, _I_ won't have to." Cindy said and showed James her palms. "Mom may make these, but I get to add my own little touches—I can cling to anything I need to on the way up."

"Neat." James said, "In a low tech, sort of way."

"_Low tech?_" Cindy said, "Do you know how hard it is to make something selectively adhesive?"

"Like I said, neat." James said, and then pulled something out from his backpack. "But this…_this_ is how to do it."

Cindy looked at the object, which looked a little bit like a yo-yo. "Okay…you've discovered the color red."

"Hah! More than that!" James said, pressing the object to his belt. "The belt actually is part of a harness, so I don't risk breaking my neck and this…" He held the device up, now connected by a thread to his belt, suddenly the space between the two hemispheres, started to buzz and as James tossed it into the air, a prop extended from it, leaving the kids looking at a hovering object. "Is a flyer unit, I can designate what I want it to connect to, and it will fly up leaving a trail of a liquid polymer rope."

"Can it hold your weight?'

"It can hold a ton…" James grimaced, "I had to change it—the original line was so thin it'd also cut through steel… maybe not such a good idea, which is why the thread is thicker."

"Mmm…" Cindy raised her eyebrows, "Better than your mom's grapple gun?"

"Oh you bet—it can hang on to stuff hers' wouldn't, and besides… who wants to walk around with a fake _blow dryer._" The two shared mutual frowns at their parents lack of fashion sense (and worse, inability to realize that they had none).

"Now, how about we race to the top. When I win you let me go into the Museum and get our samples." Cindy said.

"When _I_ win, you can keep watch on top while I go down and get the samples," James said. "Ready?"

"Sure…one….two….three…._GO!"_

James made a quick motion with his hands and the flyer zipped up to the edge of the building, spraying a quick setting anchor point, and James was off, rappelling _up_ the side of the building, the cable contracting in time to his leaps. A few feet away, Cindy scrambled up the side of the building, moving like she'd done this all her life.

But she couldn't beat the force of gravity. A quick check revealed that James would beat her by a few feet.

Cindy frowned, then got an evil smile on her face, and upon hitting a ledge, half way up the building, stood on her hands for a moment, before triggering her plasma. A subdued _whoof_ hit, and empowered by Newton's laws of motion, Cindy flew up and over James' head on the way to the roof.

When James got there, she was standing, arms folded, with a superior expression on her face.

"I win." She said.

"You didn't say you were going to use your plas-"

"I didn't say I _wasn't_." Cindy pointed out.

James sighed. "Yap, that's right."

"Hey don't worry—your technological cheat made it to second place!"

"There were only two people in the race!"

"Well, I _was_ trying to spare your feelings."

"I'll remember that the next time I'm tempted to spare _your_ feelings at the golf course."

"You didn't spare my feelings." Cindy pointed out, "When I fell into the water trying to get the ball, you didn't stop laughing until we were back home."

"I could have laughed louder." James said, pulling out his sampler. "Okay, you win—here's how you use this, and make certain not to hit a human skeleton…I don't think cloning a Neanderthal would count for earth day…"

TBC.


	5. Chapter 5

Earth Day: The Horror in the Museum

* * *

The "Hall of early life" was dark, as Cindy came down like a ghost. They'd been right—bypassing the security at the museum was like picking an unlocked door—easy.

_Of course, nobody'd be able to remove anything from here through the roof…well not unless they were only after something very light._ She smirked in the darkness, her homemade night vision goggles leaving the room bright, albeit tinted green. She squinted at the display plaques, before backing off a little bit. _Don't forget to never let on that things are getting a little blurry up close_, she thought. _Mom'd freak…and worst of all you might have to wear __**glasses**_. She pulled out the sampler, made certain it was set right, and then put it's tip lightly against the skeleton of the first exhibit. A subdued whine and a click, coupled with a green light indicated that it had done its job.

Cindy pulled out the full vial and replaced it with an empty before going to the next exhibit.

_This is going to be so great_, she thought. Unfortunately, Cindy was so happy about the operation that she'd done something her mother would have never, _ever_ done.

Lose track of her surroundings.

On the roof, James was sitting down quietly. He'd like to pace, but no matter how confident Cindy was, a cleaner in the buildings to the rear seeing someone _pacing_ on the roof of the museum might lead to complications. He really didn't want to explain to dad why they were coming home in the back of a police car.

Fortunately in addition to having last generation alarms, the parts of the museum they were in were mainly used for high bulk, low value exhibits—so they didn't need to spend the time and money they did, oh say on the gem vault.

"But I bet I could bypass…" _No! Bad James! We're doing this for a school project. If you went into the vault and got caught mom'd freak and send you to military school!_

Then James heard something that made his blood run cold.

A door had opened. Crabbing to the side of the building he looked down and realized the security guards car was there.

_What? He's supposed to come here on the hour! He's twenty minutes early!_

"Cindy." James whispered into the mike.

No reply.

"_Cindy!"_ He hissed.

"What?" Her voice came back and James sighed in relief.

"We have an intruder in the museum- the guard's _early!"_

"_What?_"

"Get out of there!"

"…too late." Cindy said and turned off the link.

Inside the museum, Cindy pressed herself back against one of the display cases, this one holding a family of Neanderthals. It was dim, if he didn't look too closely, maybe he wouldn't notice that the family had a new, and somewhat more evolved (to say nothing of fashionable) member.

It was a chance. A better chance then trying to scramble up the side of the wall and out. Maybe there was something to mom's old fashioned approach of a rope.

_I am so dead._

James Thompson (The third) enjoyed his job. He was retired, and yes, he was putting on weight, but a security job let him drive around at night, check buildings and indulge a very special hobby.

A hobby that had nearly had his wife divorce him. But here, he could be free. So he weighed 350 pounds. So he had no rhythm, here, there was nobody to mock him. He flipped his VR glasses down and was in a different world.

Cindy looked and waited and then realized that he hadn't seen her. He was wearing… _VR _glasses. She almost squealed in relief. Then…then she saw.

Yes. It was a hobby few approved of, but today, he was going to do it.

_What is he doing?_ _Why is he putting those gold chains around his neck with the medallions? Why is he __**undoing**__ the buttons of his shirt._

Now. It was time. He touched the button on his belt control unit, and with a sound familiar to any denizen of the 1970's, poor and benighted as they had been in fashion, the first dance tune from his _Disco Inferno_ sound track started belting out. He was no longer old, or really, really large for this, he was now the tyrant of the Dance Floor he'd once been, and with joy, started hitting the dance moves.

James was sitting up on the roof, literally on pins and needles. Had the guard seen Cindy? He didn't hear any shouts…. On the other hand, there was something like… shaking? He peered over in the direction of the road, but he didn't hear any trucks…but it sure felt like a big semi was rumbling by.

Cindy couldn't move. She was frozen. That was the proper word. Frozen by the horror. Then, she, by the sheer force of her will. Got up, avoided the dancing, by now shirtless and gold jewelry bedecked guard, and went up the side of the wall… trembling, but quickly.

"Cindy!" James hissed, "What happened? Did the guard see you."

"No." She said, and sat down. James sat down by her and then…

_Smack!_

"OW!" James said, rubbing the back of his head. "Why'd you do that?"

"Because _you_ didn't win the race, and I had to see…._that!_"

"What?" When Cindy didn't respond, James got up and went over to the still open window to see, and blinked. Then he blinked again. Then he came back to sit by Cindy and…

_Smack!_ "James, what was that for!"

"_You_ didn't warn me what I was about to see." The two looked at each other.

"I guess dad was right." Cindy said, "There's always a cost to breaking the laws of science."

"_That?_" James shuddered, "I always figured it was something minor, like having your soul sucked out and turned inside out."

"Yeah." Cindy said, mirroring his shudder, "Me too." She shook her head. "So, ready to get back home? I don't want to get grounded for being too late."

"Me neither." James grinned, "Well, if anyone asks if we've paid for our work…"

"We say _yes._" Cindy said with finality as they headed for the edge of the roof.

TBC.


	6. Chapter 6

Back at the Ranch....

* * *

Once they got back to James' home, Cindy had recovered. Sort of.

"I think we should get started on planning the cloning." Cindy said.

James blinked. "_now?_"

"Sure, we've pulled late nights before and it's not a school day tomorrow, _and_ your dad is here, not your mom.

"True."

Ron was…willing. "For a while." He said. "But none of that working through the night like Kim did."

"She said it got things done." James said.

"At the cost of leaving your mom with blood red eyes the next day." His father assured him. "When you were little she was working in college and I caught her squeezing the left over grounds from some coffee to get "the real caffine." " He shuddered.

"Okay, we'll work a little while." James said.

"And Drew?" Ron continued. Cindy blinked and then paled. "Don't worry, I called him." Ron said. Cindy sighed. With that he went down to the kitchen to continue working on his project.

"You know, that's right—your mom and dad had you right out of high school."

"Duh." James said, "It took you this long to count?"

"No…" Cindy said, punching him in the shoulder, "But I just realized—Monique and Ned's kid, Zita and Felix…" She paused, "I mean mom and dad were older, but your parents…why then?" She paused, "Not that I'm complaining, since you can give me back up against the gremlins."

James shrugged. "A bad guy."

"A bad guy?"

"Yeah, I asked dad about it and he told me I'd have to wait until I was older."

"And?"

"I got 'older', last year."

"Okay, so give."

"He was a bad guy who developed a depolymizer ray to destroy all rubber or latex products."

"So?"

"So it shorted out after he fired it and there was a three day blackout." James paused, "During the worst snowstorm of the year."

"And?"

"And dad said that the settlement checks were always a nice gift every month, and he was never late on them, since they were the only thing keeping mom from killing him."

"Wait that doesn't make any sense—what does that ha…" Cindy stopped, thought about it, then… "_Euggggghhhhh." _

"Wanna change the subject?"

"Right, about the DNA matrix, let's pull it out and see if we have anything."

James' room had a computer, but it was a computer created by the combined efforts of "Uncle" Wade and Uncle Jim and Tim, Grandpa James, and of course with a number of little tweaks James had been adding since he'd been old enough.

It was, in short, the sort of computer that a number of major national governments would give their eye teeth for. The holo display rose up, illuminating the two kids faces as the material was fed into the computer. Complex readouts appeared showing the divine blueprint of the double helix. James looked at it and frowned. This was Cindy's bailiwick.

"So?"

"Wait…" Cindy said, hitting the preconfigs on the virtual keyboard to her preferred settings typing on a "keyboard" formed out of holographs and forcefields.

"I still think I could install a VR neural induction system." James said.

"So we get our brains burned out if there's a power surge?"

"_Cindy!"_ James said, offended. "There wouldn't be a power surge."

"that's what dad says." Cindy said, concentrating on her work. "No thanks." She reached into the display, "grabbing" parts of the helix's and moving them around as the computer continued digesting the material in the scanning zone.

"Good news." She finally said. "We've got enough intact DNA to produce complete codes."

"Great!" James said.

"But it's going to take a little while to arrange them." Cindy said, "And since it's druge work, _you_ can help me!" James shouldered into the seat next to her and nodded, as the two started fingers flying over the keyboard.

"You know," James said, "I could automate this."

"No."

"But-"

"It's already as automated as it can be, without the computer making too many extrapolations."

"So it extrapolates, what's the problem."

"DNAmy. Mom. Dad. Their Wedding. Her Doves. Phorusrhacids. Need I say more?"

"Well they _were_ white."

"And in any case, the whole Earth Day thing is for natural animals. If the computer extrapolates too much, how much do you want to be that Mrs. Rockwaller will disallow it because it's a genemod?"

"Mgh." James said, bending down over his keyboard. There was a _lot_ to do.

In fact, there was _a great_ deal to do, and the two kids were already tired from their exertions and the horrifying experience they'd faced. The DNA helixes kept getting bigger, swimming in front of their eyes, the color coding so soft and comforting…

Ron came up the stairs quietly as only a ninja could be. The keyboards had stopped several minutes ago, and he had a feeling of what had happened.

Yep. Two AM, and James and Cindy, dead asleep, leaning against each other. Cindy had reached out and pulled herself into James in the traditional I-Don't-Have-My-Pandaroo-but-you'll-do maneuver Kim had used so many times, her head up against his shoulder.

_Hmm… best let them wake up 'on their own.'_ Ron thought, and then ghosted back down the stairs.

The sound of clattering plates woke up James, and then Cindy, as they realized they'd fallen asleep. They both moved apart like they'd been scalded, looking frantically at the door to the room, to insure that James' dad was sitting there glaring (or worse laughing), but no, they heard him moving up the stairs.

"Sorry about that." He said, "Dropped some plates." He paused, "wow, looks like you two let time get away from you—it's 2:30." He waggled a finger at them. "Like I said, No all nighters."

"Omigod!" Cindy gasped, "I'm dead!"

"Not in this house." Ron said. "I called Drew and he said you could stay over tonight if you want to. I think he was afraid you'd wake the gremlins…or interfere in his plan to raise the ghosts of an Indian burial ground."

"But there are no Indian burial grounds here." James said.

"It's a dry run." Ron pointed out. "I've got the guest bedroom ready for you Cindy." He paused, _I really shouldn't but I can't resist, "_Are you two okay—you're a bit red in the face. Not coming down with something, are you?"

"No!" Cindy and James said in one voice.

"Okay—Cindy, your clothes are in the normal drawer. Best get to bed kids, breakfast is at the crack of 10:00 AM."

"Can we work on this tomorrow?" James asked.

"A bit but weren't you two thinking of meeting up with some of the gang?"

James blinked, he'd forgotten about that. "I don't know if we have time, since Mrs. Rockwaller-Flagg hit us with Earth Day."

"Sure you do, it's not until Friday and this is the weekend." Ron said, "And you can come back when you're finished and energized."

"I-"

"Okay!" Cindy said, "Thanks Mr. Possible-Stoppable."

Ron shook his head. "I told Kim, it should just be Possible, but she wanted the whole thing. Just you wait, one day I'll be eaten by aliens because someone had to shout out: 'look out Mr. Possible-stop-oh, too late." He paused, "So say your good nights, and turn the computer off." He turned to leave, then turned back, "And no 'just one more thing,' James. You do that, and you'll be up until the sun rises and you're not going to do that." James nodded. Dad was easier going then mom, but he had a way of making his point. He saved and turned off the computer.

"Do you think he knows anything about what we did today?"

"Dad? Nah."

"Good." Cindy said. "Um…you don't think he saw-" She colored along with James.

"The way we were sleeping?" James asked, the red tinge suffusing his cheeks as well. "No—you heard him with the plates. He's clueless…besides it wasn't as if anything was happening, we were just more tired than we thought."

"Yeah. Right." Cindy said in relief. "I mean if he'd seen us, it'd be…. humiliating!"

"Or he'd tell our moms." James said. Cindy shivered at that.

"Yeah."

"It's a good thing he didn't notice anything." James said. _Thank God that Dad can be clueless at times._

"Yeah, Well, night!" Cindy said, heading for the guest room.

"Night Cin—once we get back from the mall, can we?"

"I think we can have it ready for the cloning process—" She said, "in fact if we could just do a few more things right now and-" Someone passing downstairs made a soft cough and Cindy stopped. "But we can do that later. Night!"

Cindy headed to the guest room, and yep, there was the dresser with her stuff in it, second drawer down. After all, there had been times when some disaster or another had forced the evacuation of their house, or Dad and mom had had to go do something for GJ or one of dads conferences, so she and the gremlins had spent nearly as much time here as James had spent over at their house. Cindy pulled on the oversized T-shirt and dove under the covers, considering how to set up the matrix-

And not twenty seconds later soft snores permeated the room, echoed by the ones coming from James' room.

"_Knew_ they were more tired than they thought," Ron said as he turned off the lights in the living room and headed to his own room.

TBC.


End file.
